In 2016, New Yorker writer, professor and historian Jelani Cobb produced an episode for "Frontline" titled "Policing the Police" in which he journeyed to Newark, New Jersey in the wake of two pivotal events. The first was the recent election of Ras J. Baraka to the office of mayor in 2014. The second, which happened that same year, was the release of a Department of Justice report that determined the Newark Police Department had engaged in a pattern of unconstitutional conduct that disproportionately targeted minorities. For one, it found that nearly 75 percent of documented pedestrian stops by the police were not justified.
And this explains, but does not excuse, why Cobb came up empty when he sought out paperwork on a questionably executed and highly disturbing stop he witnessed firsthand during a 2016 ride-along with Newark police. In the scene, the officers Cobb accompanies surround a Black man who was simply walking home, wrestle him to the ground, cuff him and rough him up as they go through his pockets, only to release him when they didn't find any weapons or drugs. Their justification for such force was what he said to officers as they approached him: "Don't touch me, man. Please don't touch me."
No comments:
Post a Comment